A proposal for changes in the Schedule of Fees was published in
the Federal Register by the Department of State's Bureau of Consular
Affairs on February 9, 2010. Included in the proposal are increases in
several fees related to passport services.
The purpose of these
changes is to achieve recovery of the costs to the U.S. Government of
providing the consular services. The proposed changes in fees are based
on an independent study that was conducted from August 2007 through June
2009.
Once implemented, applicants age 16 and over who wish to
obtain a new passport or to get a passport book renewed will pay $70
instead of the current fee of $55. The security surcharge is set to
increase from $20 to $40. This means that, once the new fees become
effective, applicants age 16 and over will pay $110 to obtain their
travel document. This is an increase of 47%.
The State Department
has proposed a fee of $82 for applicants who want to add visa pages to a
passport. There is presently no fee for this service.
Passport
card application service fees will also be increased. The fee for
applicants age 16 and over will increase from $20 to $30 while the fee
for applicants under age 16 will increase from $10 to $15.
A
substantial increase is proposed for file searches in cases where
applicants do not present adequate evidence of citizenship. This fee is
being raised from $60 to $150. An easy way to avoid this cost is for
applicants to submit only documents which the Department accepts as
evidence of citizenship.
Increased costs related to a significant
increase in the number of applications submitted, new passport agencies
serving border communities and enhanced biometric features in the
document itself have contributed to the need to increase fees.
When
will the proposed passport fees be implemented? No exact date is set
but it will be shortly after the 30-day public comment period that
initiated with the publication of the proposal in the Federal Register.
At the completion of this period, the State Department will evaluate the
comments submitted and, then, implement the proposed changes.
If
you have been thinking about applying for a new passport or renewing an
expired one, you might want to do it quickly and save yourself some
money.
